What makes this man roar?

The difference between 1995 and 1998 is the importance that smallparties and even lone members have come to acquire in Indian politics. Such was the desperation of the Vajpayee government to put together the requisite numbers that the party conveniently suffered an attack of amnesia over the chargesheet against Buta Singh in the JMM bribery case. He was even rewarded for his support to the government with the prized Communications portfolio. But within a few weeks, he was ignominously stripped, almost overnight, of both ministership and ministerial privileges.

But he shouldn8217;t be written off just yet. Buta Singh has always been the great survivor who has turned many an adverse situation to his advantage. It is this quality that keeps him going even though he is presently embroiled in more than one case and has the Enforcement Directorate breathing down his neck for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Ever the opportunist, he is now threatening to launch a regional party in Rajasthan. This is only to emphasise his nuisance value ina state where elections are due at the end of the year. By launching a regional party, he hopes he can influence the outcome in around 20 assembly seats in western and northern Rajasthan. This would give him the bargaining strength to strike deals with both the Congress and the BJP. His political clout lies in his being a mazhabi Sikh, who has over the years organised safai karmacharis in the country. In fact, before he was inducted into the Narasimha Rao cabinet, he had organised various organisations of Dalits, primarily to embarrass the party leadership into accommodating him.

It is this base that he hopes to build upon in order to rehabilitate himself politically. Theoretically speaking, if he manages to bag some 2,000 to 5,000 Dalit votes in some 20 constituencies in Rajasthan it could help a beleagured Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, since these votes would otherwise go to the Congress. Incidentally, in these Lok Sabha elections, he had stood as an independent from Jalore after the then Congress PresidentSitaram Kesri had denied him a ticket. It was Shekhawat who helped him to win this seat. Jalore is a reserved constituency with Dalits and Rajputs forming its electoral base and Shekhawat8217;s links with the Rajput jagirdars of the border area are well-known. Buta Singh, on his part, had cultivated this constituency assiduously since the days when he was Home minister in the Rajiv Gandhi era.

But despite Buta Singh8217;s natural optimism, he may find it tough to plough a lone furrow in Rajasthan. If he had continued as minister, he may have managed to build and sustain a loyal core group in the state. Power, after all, and telephones make an enticing combination as another Union minister of communications, Sukh Ram, proved so convincingly in Himachal Pradesh. But out of power, it could be another story. Even the BSP has not made much headway in Rajasthan, and lost ground in Punjab this time.

In all likelihood, Buta Singh8217;s future lies with the Congress and his recent indication that he is willing to rejoin theparty if Sonia Gandhi asks him to do so, signals that he himself is aware of this. But the Congress has, thus far, not bitten the bait. Since the party is in no hurry to form a government at the Centre, it may not want to give the impression that it is eager to welcome back its former members who have been tainted in corruption cases. In any case, he cannot join the Congress outright since he is an Independent. At best, he can be an associate member of the Congress Parliamentary Party.

The one thing that goes in his favour is the fact that he has been a Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist. He had even worn a locket bearing Indira Gandhi8217;s photograph right through the 1998 election campaign and told his audiences that he was a ghulam slave of the Nehru family.

Like many other Sikhs, Buta Singh left the Akali Dal to join the Congress and remained a Congressman for 35 years. A seven-time MP, he first entered the Lok Sabha in 1962. Although it was Sanjay Gandhi who had discerned his potential, Buta Singh cosied upto brother Rajiv Gandhi during the heady days of the Delhi Asiad in 1982 when he was Union minister for sports, youth, public works and housing. Both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, who was overseeing the arrangements for the Asian Games, were impressed with the way he went about meeting deadlines.

Later, in 1984, after Operation Bluestar he again made himself useful for the Gandhi family by organising the kar seva to rebuild the Akal Takht in the Golden Temple complex that was damaged. The Sikh clergy and leadership were furious over this betrayal and declared him tankhaiyya excommunicated. Buta Singh atoned for this lapse many years later by performing penance through cleaning shoes at the Golden Temple for a month. To this day, the heavy security around his Delhi home is a reminder of those traumatic days.

As Union home minister from 1986 to 8217;89, Buta Singh came to be Rajiv Gandhi8217;s hatchet man, after the young prime minister fell out with Arun Nehru. For instance, when Harideo Joshi refused toresign in 1988, it was Buta Singh who was sent to 8220;persuade8221; him to do so. Similar situations arose in other states as well and he dealt with each case using the carrot and the stick expeditiously.

Essentially a political manager, Buta Singh is no ideas man. The Congress8217; undoing in Uttar Pradesh began with the shilanayas, an idea believed to be his. It was he who had urged Rajiv Gandhi to lay the foundations for the temple but not to build it. The move lost the Congress the votes of both the Hindus and the Muslims in the state.

Today, this man is out but not down. In these times of instability, when the BJP-led coalition rules with a wafer-thin majority in Parliament, even a one-man show like Buta Singh can pack some punch.